Report from the complementary currency meeting

We had a productive Complementary Currency meeting at the end of February in Aina Haina, with fourteen of us exploring the possibilities and sharing ideas. (Thank you, Ron Robinson, for hosting this event at your home!)

Links to the YouTube videos we watched are at right, followed by some links to some sample systems, both paper currency and online mutual credit systems. (The Hawaiian Currency on is simply a conceptual art project, but it gets the imagination going...)

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Outcomes & What's Next

• We discussed scale for a potential system. People tended to like island-wide as the scope but to be able to zero in on local areas depending on the situation. (E.g., map based tool that allows zooming for local offerings.)
• Joy articulated a draft process that received applause :-)
  - define options (research, prototype, discuss)
  - community survey, currency/trading games, other outreach to help select system
  - decide on a system and bring partners on board
  - budget and funding
  - going live and multimedia outreach
  ...all the while gathering members/interested parties.
• A few of us will be meeting soon to begin defining the various options. These are alternative answers to: 1) what purpose should our system serve? 2) what mechanism/system shall we implement?

Choosing from among the alternatives would be informed by the community survey & feedback sessions.

The stages that people would like to get involved with will vary. If you would like to be part of researching and defining what the options are, please visit the working group page and use the contact form. Thanks!

Here are links to the YouTube shorts we showed at the meeting:

• Creating Our Own Money: Introduction
  
• Ithaca Hours: Local Currency
  
• BerkShares & Multiplier Effect
  
• The Money Fix (we watched the mutual credit segment starting about 0:59:00)
  
• Brixton Pound (a Transition currency)
  
• Brixton Pound (pay by text) (they are using Cyclos software for web and SMS payments)

Here are some of the websites we wanted to show with examples:

• Salt Spring Dollars (this is one of the sites that got Stuart so enthused about paper complementary currencies)
  
• Hawaiian Currency concept designs by Kelsey Ige
  
• Cyclos online and mobile banking software (Seems the cleanest and most full-featured of the open source systems I've reviewed; next iteration will not be generally free, but may still be for social purpose organizations. This is serious software.They have a demo area - try it out!)
  
• Community Exchange System (a related software system -- apparently in use on Kaui where their unit is "Kalas")
  
• Fourth Corner Exchange (based in Bellingham, WA, Life Dollar system is available)
  
• Community Forge ("We've helped over 400 communities implement currencies") Here's a demo site. They use the Drupal content management system.
  
• Value for People (UK based group that consults on community currencies -- they've got a Starter Pack that's a goldmine as far as suggested process -- much like the one Joy proposed)